


The New Present

by AmayaBlack



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Challenge Response, Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), F/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, SnowBarry - Freeform, timeline change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24427402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmayaBlack/pseuds/AmayaBlack
Summary: After the Crisis on Infinite Earths the Speed Force gives Barry the memories of the new timeline.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	The New Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KarryMaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarryMaster/gifts), [KarryBeta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarryBeta/gifts).



> This is my response to the Millmaverse's Post-Crisis on Infinite Earth Couples Challenge.

Barry was exhausted, that was the understanding of the century, considering that they had spent at least a month in the Temporal Zonal. And it wasn’t until he combined his powers with Oliver’s Specter power that they were able to leave it. But of course, that wasn’t the only thing, no, they had to go through the timeline until they found a place to battle the Anti-Monitor. Then when they finally had made it, it was only to realize that the multiverse was not only dead but that the surviving Earths had combined into one. And then, they had to battle the Anti-Monitor, again, because, of course, they had too. 

It was past midnight when Barry made it back to Star Labs and the only thing he wanted to do was sleep. Going into a nine-month coma seems like a nice nap to him right about now. At Star Labs, Caitlin, Cisco, and Ralph were waiting there for him. While Cisco and Ralph wanted to know what had happened after the battle, Caitlin just wanted to examine him and made sure he wasn’t critically hurt. 

If he wasn’t so tired, he would have noticed the concerned looks Cisco and Ralph were giving him. Or that since getting her memories back, thanks to J’onn, Caitlin had been avoiding looking at him directly. It was also, because of the long action pack and honestly confusing day that he hadn’t realized he hadn’t seen Iris yet.

Although Caitlin had been fast on her examination, Barry had fallen asleep before she was done.

~*~

Barry felt at peace and refreshed when he woke up. He remembers everything that happened, the battles, losing Oliver, the anti-matter wave that took all the universes, the time on the Temporal Zone, getting Oliver back in the form of Specter, battling the Anti-Monitor, losing Oliver again, re-making Earth, battling the Anti-Monitor again and winning for sure this time, but he doesn’t feel overwhelmed by all of it. Sitting on the bed looking around he was surprised when instead of the medical area he was in his childhood room. He knew what this meant, he was in the Speed Force. This was confirmed when his mother came into view. 

“Mom? What am I doing here?”

“After everything that happened, I just wanted to see you. I knew you were ok, but I needed to see you,” she responded in a soft voice and looked at him with affection. “Also, I wanted to help you out. As you know when Oliver, you and the other paragons restarted the universe a new timeline and a new Earth was created.” the Speed Force said while sitting beside him on the bed.

“Yeah, I noticed some things were different, yet similar enough. The team and I will work on getting a better understating of things soon enough.”

“That’s good, you and they will work together in getting to know this new world. However, I want to give you some memories of the current timeline that perhaps your teammates wouldn’t be comfortable in sharing with you” the Speed Force said.

“Why wouldn’t they feel comfortable telling me?” Barry asked.

“Because at times you’re not the best listener and tend to overreact” the Speed Force answered as a matter of fact. Although he was a bit offended by that, he knew deep down, that the Speed Force was right. She smiled at the look on his face. 

Taking a deep breath and putting her hand on his face the Speed Force continued, “Barry, I am so proud of you. Even if at times it doesn't look like it, you have grown as a person, a leader, and as a speedster.”

Although he was happy to hear it, he had an odd feeling with the direction this conversation has taken, “what aren’t you telling me? What’s wrong?”

“Don’t worry about it now. What it is to come will come and when it happens I know you will rise to the occasion. Always remember that I am proud of you, and I am glad to have chosen you. Now, is the time for you to go and remember.” With that said Speed Force Nora kissed him on the cheek and everything went dark.

~*~

When Barry woke up again it was different, this time it looks like he was watching a movie play out at super speed in front of him. It was hard, having to watch certain parts of his life again, his mother dying, his dad accused of killing her, his crush on Iris, living with Joe, becoming the Flash, and defeating the Reverse-Flash. It seems like everything was the same except... 

“Wait…My dad is alive!?” Barry exclaimed.

He sees Zoom taking his father from Joe’s house and taking him to his childhood home. When he gets there Zoom is so distracted goading him, that he doesn't notice when Henry takes a pocket knife and stabs him in his stomach. It doesn’t kill Zoom but is painful enough that Zoom lets go of his dad and he’s able to speed him away to Star Labs where the rest of the team has gathered by now. He takes what seems to be power dampeners and goes back to look for Zoom. This time he ends up in an alley, where there are two Zooms, one dead on the floor, the other looking down at it angry. That is enough distraction for Barry to put the power dampeners on Zoom’s body, he takes him by the arm and speeds him to a cell on Star Labs. It took a couple of days but Zoom died in his cell because of all the damage Velocity had done to his body. It was a few days later when Harry had brought the real Jay Garrick to Earth-1 so he could clear his name. It was amusing seeing his father meet his Earth-3 doppelganger. 

..

Things stayed mostly the same, only some minimal changes to include his father. Like Caitlin, Cisco, his father, and him talking about the scientific discoveries and developments his father had no way of knowing for being in jail all those years. His favorite scenes are when Caitlin and his father talk about medical procedures and other treatments that could be advanced in the future.

..

The meta-humans created by The Alchemist to help Savitar were the same. In this timeline, Savitar also wanted to kill Iris. The thing that changed the most was the appearance of Killer Frost. This time around Barry was not only involved in helping Caitlin, but he was able to convince her that instead of blocking her power she should try to control them and maybe even use them. They had many discussions of her fears and what it felt like when the powers were activated.

“Barry, you don’t understand, it is like having a second personality, and Killer Frost is trying to get control of me,” Caitlin said.

“How about we then find a way for you and Killer Frost to communicate, instead of having the both of you fight for control?” he said.

“How could that be possible?” she asked.

“A combination of medication and technology could help out,” Henry said. 

“It seems I can’t say ‘No’ to the Allen men. Fine, we’ll give it a try.” Caitlin said.

It was touch and go for a while, and even though communicating with Killer Frost wasn’t reliable slowly but surely Caitlin and Frost started to build up a sort of understanding. So on a night when Killer Frost was out Savitar approached her. Although tempted, she wasn’t convinced to join him, but she discovered who Savitar was; something she would loudly and constantly brag about. With the information, Savitar had given Killer Frost the team had been able to unlink Barry and Savitar. After that Barry was able to remove Savitar from his suit and when the timeline change caught him Savitar simply disappeared. However, with Savitar dead, Barry ended up having to take his place on the Speed Force to prevent it from collapsing on Earth.  
..

It still took six months for Team Flash to get him out of the Speed Force. This time, however, they didn’t have the pressure of the Samuroid, which helped with him coming out without memory or communication issues. He was informed by a sad-looking Joe that Iris had left Central City and was currently living in Coast City. Although heartbroken, after talking with her, Barry understood her reasons for moving away, not only she got an amazing career opportunity but she wanted a peaceful life and they both knew she wasn’t going to have it living in Central City. Coming back from Coast City he found that Team Flash had informed Team Arrow, and Supergirl’s team that he was back and they were all there to have a small celebration in his honor.

..

Going after The Thinker was as complicated and annoying as before, he always seems to be a couple of steps ahead of him and the team. However, this time around he didn’t end up going to prison. Having his dad, and Caitlin seems to have helped keep him from acting impulsively, and with their encouragement, he asked Oliver and Kara for help. Although, on the day they had decided to meet was the same day that Nazi Earth invaded their earth. Their goals were the same, take Kara’s heart and have this Earth under their ruling, they failed in both.

The night he had to destroy Star Labs satellite to avoid the “Enlightening” was the same, including the second speedster punching the satellite at the same time. Later that same night they are celebrating at Joe's house, the speedster goes into the house. She said her name was Nora Crystal Allen, his daughter. However, she refused to say who her mother is because according to her they aren’t together yet and she doesn’t want to change anything more. But before Barry could ask more, Nora passed out.

“What...what happened?” Nora asked, still a bit groggy and looking around. “I’m at Star Labs?”

“Yes, you passed out. But everything is fine, you just needed an I.V. to get your glucose levels back up. It happened to Barry when he first started.” Caitlin said.

“Thanks, m...Caitlin” Nora responded. 

“If you’re feeling better, we need you in the Speed Lab, see what you can do with your speed’ Barry said.

“Ok, dad,” she said.

They all sat at the Speed Lab with Cisco and Caitlin looking at the computers, while Nora was running on the track.

“She’s fast. Faster than you were when you first got your powers,” Cisco said to Barry, who nodded at this information.

“Then why can’t I open a breach? Also, this is slower than when I was practicing,” Nora tells them.

“What do you mean, you’re slower?” Barry asked.

“Well, you have just taken out the power dampener, and it felt like I had all this energy in me, it was intense. You told me to run, I did but I couldn’t stop” she said.

“Wait, you had a speed dampener. Why?” Caitlin asked.

“Well, it had something to do with dad getting tired of having to run after me when I first started walking, and mom was scared something would happen to me. So you all decided it would be easier. But I always knew I was a speedster,” Nora explained.

“Yeah, I can see why I wouldn’t want to be running behind you all the time. So you had what, 20 or so years of unused speed?” Barry asked. “This means, all that energy coming at the same time would have let you be faster but after time traveling it normalized.” Barry said.

“So what you’re saying is that this is your fault for never taking the dampener out from time to time?” Nora asked. Not giving him time to respond she started laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” asked Caitlin, smiling at Nora’s reaction.

“Because this wasn’t my fault, so you can’t ground me!” Nora said laughing.

Barry couldn’t help but smile at seeing Nora being happy, it was obvious that she had grown with him and they were happy. He only wishes, she had told them who her mother was because it wasn’t Iris. Although, because he was able to look in on what was happening without the distraction of being there he had a suspicion that Caitlin was her mother. And honestly, he wasn’t surprised, he just wondered if she had the same suspicion. That’s one thing he had noticed, Caitlin and him had become close, going out just the two of them with Frost’s commentary and other times even going out with Frost. Plus, he could see that they were starting to develop romantic feelings for each other.

Days after Nora leaving they became aware of Cicada, who was killing meta-humans. Once again, they had paid Sherloque to help them investigate who Cicada was. Only this time, when they found who he was, both Kara and Oliver had help out with capturing him. And between Caitlin, Cisco, and Alex they had been able to remove the pieces of the Star Labs’ satellite he and his niece had in them. In all it had taken them a couple of months to deal with this, contrary to the previous timeline where it had taken them a year to figure out.  
..

During the Cicada issue, he and Caitlin had officially started dating. He could see in their eyes, they had fallen for each other, and they were happy. They had officially been together for almost a year, and by the time a full year had gone by they wanted to move in together. They had agreed that the best thing to do was to find a place together instead of having one of them join the other’s apartment.

They were currently in the Cortex trying to find a place. So far, they hadn’t found anything that they would agree on, through this he had found out how picky they all were.

“We are never finding a place,” Caitlin discouraged.

“Don’t worry we will, there’s no hurry,” Barry tried to comfort her.

“We could have been moved by now if you would just let me talk with my connections,” Frost added.

“No,” both Caitlin and Barry said at the same time. Caitlin could hear Frost chuckle on her head.

That’s when they got the alert of a power surge on the Time Vault. When they went to investigate the Monitor was there and the date of the newspaper mentioning a Crisis had changed. 

“I don’t understand, what changed?” Barry asked the Monitor.

“These things happen, the future may be stable but is not set in stone.” the Monitor responded. “You and your friends better prepare,” with that he was gone.

“Better inform Oliver, Kara, and Sara,” Barry said.

From that point on, all the teams; including the Gotham team that Kara had introduced them to, would get together a couple of times a week to plan and train. Everyone was on edge, they knew something was coming, they just didn’t know what. All they could do was create a loose plan, train, and update their equipment. 

A couple of days before the crisis was due, Barry found Caitlin in the medical area of Star Labs. She hadn’t joined them to train, deciding on stock, and double-checking the medical equipment. She had been distracted so she didn’t notice him when he entered the room.

“Cait, I missed you today,” he said to her while hugging her from behind and kissing her on her cheek. “hey, what’s wrong?” he asked when he felt her tense up.  
She turned around so she could look at his face “Barry, I…” she took a big breath and told him “I’m pregnant.” 

It took him a couple of seconds to comprehend what she told him, but then he smiled. “The timing sucks, but this is great news Cait. We’re going to be parents!” he said laughing and then kissed her.

“Yes, we are,” Caitlin said smiling.

They were still hugging each other when the alarms went off...The crisis had started.

~*~

When Barry woke up, he realized he was at the medical area of Star Labs, and he was alone. He was glad to be alone, he had a lot to think about. There are so many thoughts and feelings he needs to sort out before he’s ready to talk to anyone. Looking around for the clock he saw that it was shortly past noon. With this in mind, he left the labs for a short run around the city, after all, running had always helped him think.

This time, however, running didn’t help much. The only thing he was certain of was that the feelings he had seen himself have for Caitlin on the Speed Force were still there. He loved her, hopefully, she still loved him. It was weird and he couldn’t explain it but his feelings for Iris had changed. They were more of an echo, he would always love her but he wasn’t in love with her. He was glad J’onn had only given the memories back only to the immediate team and Joe hadn’t been there because things could have become extremely awkward. For right now he needs to talk with Caitlin.

Running back to the city he went to Caitlin apartment, hoping she was there instead of at Star Labs. He was in luck, when he got to her apartment he could hear movement inside. Taking a deep breath to calm himself and hoping for the best, he knocked on the door.

He had to wait just a few seconds for Caitlin to open the door, “Barry!” she said, surprised to see him there. Since having her old memories back, she had been thinking how to approach Barry and so far she had no idea how to do it.

“Hey, Cait. Can I come in?” He could tell she was either just waking up or was just launching around because she was still on her pajamas. 

“Yeah, sure. Come in, come in. I wasn’t expecting you to come here.” She said while directing him to the sofa in her living room.

“Where else could I go?”

“I thought you would have gone to J’onn for him to give Iris her memories back.” She said not looking directly at him.

He decided to ignore that comment for the moment. “That’s why I’m here. To talk about the current timeline memories. Did J’onn giving you the pre-crisis memories erase the current timeline?” 

“Oh...umm” she was nervous about this question should she lie and tell him they were blurry or just tell him the truth and hope for the best. But before she could have an answer Frost took over.

“No, we still have them. By the way, I like this timeline much better, there’s way less angst.” 

“You’re right Frost, our lives here are less angsty. But honestly, your bragging on knowing who Savitar was before ‘the official heroes’ was starting to get old.” Barry said.

“How do you know about that?” Caitlin asked in surprise.

“The Speed Force gave me the memories back. All of them,” he answered.

“Oh” was all that Caitlin said while putting her hands on her barely-there baby bump. 

“Yeah,” he said. The silence that followed was awkward. 

“Is anyone going to talk about it or just sit there doing nothing?” Frost said.

“Well, you found out about the pregnancy right before the fighting started. Have you been able to check that the baby and you are doing ok?” Barry asked.

“I checked yesterday, everything seems fine. I’ll make an appointment with my OB-GYN soon.” 

“Ok.” Barry sighs before continuing. “Cait, I know all this is confusing, but I want to give us a chance. Not only because of the baby but because for me it is not just memories. I...I think...no, I’m pretty sure that I’m in love with you.” 

“I’m glad to hear that, because, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you too.” 

For the first time other than in their memories, Barry and Caitlin were kissing, for both of them, it felt like coming home. They knew that there was a lot that they needed to figure out but for right now, being together was all they needed.


End file.
